Manila, Dec 16 (TIWN) A six-year-old girl was killed when the house she was in collapsed during a magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

The quake was centred 38 miles southwest of Davao on the island of Mindanao, at a depth of 28.2km, the US Geological Survey said, revising down the magnitude from an earlier reported 6.9.  Vincent Fernandez, the mayor of Matanao town in Davao del Sur province, told Radio DZMM that a six-year-old girl had died after a wall collapsed on her.  Speaking from an emergency shelter, Fernandez said his two-storey town hall had been badly damaged by the intense shaking, along with two bridges and several buildings already weakened by previous quakes.  "The shaking was different this time, it wasn't swaying. It's like a roller was rumbling by underneath," he added, before appealing for food packages and tents to be sent out.